Netanyahu Calls Iran Nuclear Deal 'Bad and Dangerous' for Israel and World Peace

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu called the deal on the table between the world powers and Iran “bad and dangerous.”

“It is dangerous not just for us, it is also dangerous for them (the world powers). It is dangerous for world peace because it lowers the pressure of sanctions that took years to build while on the other hand, Iran, in practice, retains its nuclear enrichment capability as well as the ability to advance along the plutonium track,” Netanyahu said Sunday at the start of the Cabinet meeting.

Netanyahu’s warning came hours after the announcement in Geneva that a final bargaining session that started late Saturday night and stretched into early Sunday morning failed to produce a deal. The sides announced that negotiations will continue in 10 days, citing the need to overcome differences.

Iran is negotiating with the P5+1 world powers, which refers to the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council — Russia, China, the United States, France and Britain — plus Germany, who are negotiating with Iran to end its suspected nuclear weapons program.

France objected to the deal, saying it would not slow Iran’s nuclear enrichment.

Under the proposed deal, Iran would freeze its nuclear program for six months and in exchange receive some easing of international sanctions, while continuing to negotiate a long-term agreement.

Netanyahu has called on Iran to close the Arak heavy-water nuclear reactor capable of enriching uranium to weapons grade, and give up all enrichment of uranium, not just the 20 percent enrichment that is an issue in the negotiations.

A delegation of U.S. officials led by Wendy Sherman, the U.S. undersecretary for political affairs, who is Jewish, who heads the U.S. negotiating team on the matter, is scheduled to visit Jerusalem on Sunday to update Netanyahu and his Cabinet on the talks, Haaretz reported.

Netanyahu reported spoke over the weekend with U.S. President Barack Obama; Russian President Vladimir Putin; British Prime Minister David Cameron; and German Chancellor Angela Merkel, as well as French President Francois Hollande, whose country opposed the deal, and asked them not to sign the deal with Iran.

The proposed deal and the United States’ handling of it have reportedly soured the relationship between Netanyahu and Kerry, according to Israeli media.

“I want to caution everyone from jumping to conclusions or believing premature reports or prejudging outcomes or, particularly, believing either rumors or other little parcels of information that somebody portends to know or that leak out. The fact is that the negotiations are actually taking place enormously privately,” Kerry said in Geneva shortly after the talks ended.

“I would emphasize also that the window for diplomacy does not stay open indefinitely, and we will continue working to find a peaceful solution because we believe that forceful diplomacy is a powerful enough weapon to be able to actually defuse the world’s most threatening weapons of mass destruction,” Kerry also said.

The Forward's independent journalism depends on donations from readers like you.

Tagged as:

Author

Your Comments

The Forward welcomes reader comments in order to promote thoughtful discussion on issues of importance to the Jewish community.
In the interest of maintaining a civil forum, The Forward requires that all commenters be appropriately respectful toward our writers, other commenters and the subjects of the articles. Vigorous debate and reasoned critique are welcome; name-calling and personal invective are not and will be deleted. Egregious commenters will be banned from commenting. While we generally do not seek to edit or actively moderate comments, our spam filter prevents most links and certain key words from being posted and the Forward reserves the right to remove comments for any reason.